Every graduation ceremony has — for lack of better words — a certain degree of pomp and circumstance. The University of Massachusetts Amherst is no different. Each year, a group of international students volunteer to carry the flags of their countries in an Olympic Games-style “Parade of Nations.” Public health major Kalsang Nangpa wanted to be…
2 thoughts on “Policy or discrimination? UMass Amherst student prevented from carrying Tibetan flag at graduation.”
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As a native of western Massachusetts now living in the forbidden country of Taiwan, which is not part of Communist China and never has been, I think that UMass officials have caved in to China’s demands. So graduating students from Taiwan cannot carry their national flag at the UMass parade of nations event, too? Shame on UMass for caving in to dictators in China! I call it UShame now.
The point however is that Taiwan has been part of China for hundreds of years with the exception of colonial periods under the Dutch and the Japanese. Its present existence is totally reliant on the political will and military might of the US and Japan. A little bit less than 2 million Taiwanese Chinese work and live in Communist China today, and they do not seem to be complaining
As for the ethnic Tibetan young woman undergrad at UMass, she and her supporting organization “Students for a Free Tibet” have been beating the publicity drums for more than a week now. I have read many newspaper stories. The thread that emerges is as follows: She graduated from primary and secondary school in Massachusetts. She therefore probably emigrated to the US with her family 10-15 years ago. Technically she is not a foreign student and at the very least is on her way to becoming a US citizen . . . if she is not already. Given her age it also is extremely unlikely that she was born in Tibet. Her parents or grandparents may have been, but she most likely was born in India. The only way I could support her demand to hoist the Snow Lion flag would be if she was going to return to India to help the Tibetan communities there, but given her immigration status this is unlikely. So I see her situation similar to that of a Jewish American grad who wants to carry an Israeli flag during his/her commencement ceremony